Museum School Partnerships

Museum School Partnerships

Water Striders Junior Guides: From Creeks to Coastline is a museum/school partnership between the Oakland Museum of California science education department and two Oakland Unified Schools: Korematsu Discovery Academy and La Escuelita. Over the period of a school year, three fifth grade classes study the ecology of their local watersheds including how natural and urban habitats are affected by human actions upstream and downstream.

Four field trips to a creek, saltmarsh, bay and coast allow students to study freshwater as well as saltwater habitats. The students incorporate their discoveries and explorations from the field trips into tour presentations in the Natural Sciences Gallery of the Oakland Museum. The fifth graders or junior guides work with museum docents to craft activities and tours that would appeal to younger students. The junior guides then tour several classes of younger students from their own school teaching about watershed habitats and human impacts.

This combination field experience and peer teaching programs culminates with a family event at the museum where fifth grade students tour their families and friends.

On-line Exhibit

Students contributed artwork, journal entries, information on individual species from their research projects, and their ideas about how to take care of our watershed to an online field guide exhibit to share with friends and families.